Time Warner (TWX) (AMT) (KNXA) (SUNH) (CBB) Ratings Reiterated

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT), Kenexa Co. (NASDAQ: KNXA), Sun Healthcare Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNH) and Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE: CBB) had ratings on them reiterated by analyts.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) reiterated its "Buy" rating on Time Warner Inc. (TWX). They have a price target of $40.00 on the company.

Oppenheimer reiterated its "Outperform" rating on American Tower Corporation (AMT). They have a price target of $60.00 on the company.

Oppenheimer reiterated its "Outperform" rating on Kenexa Co. (KNXA). They have a price target of $30.00 on the company.

Oppenheimer reiterated its "Underperform" rating on Sun Healthcare Group, Inc. (SUNH).

Time Warner (TWX) (BGCP) (YOKU) (BIIB) (CEO) (MBLX) Upgraded

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP), Youku.com Inc (NASDAQ: YOKU), Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), CNOOC (NYSE: CEO) and Metabolix Inc (NASDAQ: MBLX) were upgraded by analysts.

Time Warner Inc. (TWX) was upgraded by Caris & Company from an “Above Average” rating to a “Buy” rating. They have a price target of $43.00 on the company.

BGC Partners, Inc. (BGCP) was upgraded by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc from a “Market Perform” rating to an “Outperform” rating.

Youku.com Inc. (YOKU) was upgraded by Maxim Group from a “Sell” rating to a “Hold” rating.

Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) was upgraded by UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) from a “Neutral” rating to a “Buy” rating.

CNOOC (CEO) was upgraded by Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) from an “Underperform” rating to a “Hold” rating.

Metabolix Inc. (MBLX) was upgraded by Piper Jaffray (NYSE:PJC) from an “Underweight” rating to a “Neutral” rating. They have a price target $5.00 on the company.

MasterCard (MA) (AREX) (EMR) (SPW) (TWX) (WFR) Price Targets Changed

MasterCard (NYSE: MA), Approach Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: AREX), Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR), SPX Corp (NYSE: SPW), Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) and MEMC Electronic Materials Inc (NYSE: WFR) price targets adjusted by analysts.

Approach Resources Inc. (AREX) had its price target lowered by Rodman & Renshaw from $33.00 to $30.00. They have an “Outperform” rating on the company.

Emerson Electric Co. (EMR) had its price target lowered by analysts at Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) to $59.00. They have an “outperform” rating on the company.

MasterCard (MA) had its price target raised by FBR Capital from $330.00 to $390.00. They have an “Outperform” rating on the company.

SPX Corp. (SPW) had its price target lowered by FBR Capital from $92.00 to $88.00. They have an “Outperform” rating on the company.

Time Warner Inc. (TWX) had its price target lowered by UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) to $36.00. They have a “Neutral” rating on the company.

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (WFR) had its price target lowered by UBS AG to $12.00. They have a “Buy” rating on the company.

Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) Earnings Meet Expectations

Earnings from Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) managed to meet analysts' expectations, as the company had net income of $78.1 million or one cent a share, against $41.6 million, or one cent a share in the same quarter last year. That was an increase of 87.8 percent over last year in the same period.

Revenue for the quarter jumped to $723.8 million, a 9 percent improvement over last year in the same quarter.

Sirius said, “SiriusXM’s first quarter results have put us on track to attain our full year goals for subscriber, revenue, and adjusted EBITDA growth. Significantly, we are now in a position to raise our free cash flow estimate for the year,” said Mel Karmazin, Chief Executive Officer, SiriusXM. “Consumers are buying cars again and demand for our product is strong. Were it not for the OEM supply chain uncertainty resulting from the tragedy in Japan, we would be in a position to raise our subscriber guidance today.”

Major competitors of Sirius include Westwood One, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWON), Entercom Communications Corp. (NYSE:ETM), Cumulus Media Inc. (NASDAQ:CMLS), Saga Communications, Inc. (AMEX:SGA), Emmis Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:EMMS), Radio One, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROIAK), CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS), Disney (NYSE:DIS), Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), Grupo Radio Centro SAB de CV (NYSE:RC) and Salem Communications Corp (NASDAQ:SALM).

Shares of Sirius soared to $2.08, gaining $0.17, or 8.64 percent, as of 1:35 PM EDT.

Ratings on (TWX) (V) (VLCM) (WBCO) (XOM) Reiterated

Ratings on Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), Volcom Inc (NASDAQ: VLCM), Washington Banking Company (NASDAQ: WBCO), Warner Chilcott (NASDAQ: WCRX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) reiterated by analysts.

Benchmark Co. reiterated a “buy” rating on Time Warner Inc. (TWX). They have a price target of $44.00 on the company.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) reiterated an “overweight” rating on Visa Inc. (V).

Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) reiterated a “buy” rating on Volcom Inc (VLCM). They have a price target of $20.00 on the company.

Wunderlich reiterated a “buy” rating on Washington Banking Company (WBCO).

Benchmark Co. reiterated a “sell” rating on Exxon Mobil (XOM). They now have a price target of $74.00 on the company.

Dividend Yields for (CF) (TWX) (MHP) (TWC) (WPO)

Indicated dividend yields for Standard & Poor's 500 Index companies CF Industries Holdings Inc (CF), Time Warner Inc (TWX), McGraw-Hill Cos Inc (MHP), Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC) and Washington Post Co (WPO).

These dividend data indicate dividend yields of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index as of Saturday, April 30. The yield is determined by taking the latest declared dividend, annualized and divided by the price of the stock. Payout ratios are calculated based on latest quarterly dividend paid divided by earnings.

CF Industries Holdings Inc (CF) has a dividend yield of 0.28 percent on a declared dividend of $0.10. The payout ratio is 3.6 percent.

Time Warner Inc (TWX) has a dividend yield of 2.49 percent on a declared dividend of $0.07. The payout ratio is 6.4 percent.

McGraw-Hill Cos Inc (MHP) has a dividend yield of 2.47 percent on a declared dividend of $0.25. The payout ratio is 63.6 percent.

Time Warner Cable Inc (BLL) has a dividend yield of 2.46 percent on a declared dividend of $0.48. The payout ratio is 51.4 percent.

Washington Post Co (WPO) has a dividend yield of 2.16 percent on a declared dividend of $2.35. The payout ratio is 24.5 percent.

Yahoo! (YHOO) Hires Time Warner (TWX) Executive for Sports, Other

Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) announced they have hired a Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) executive to head up sports, games and entertainment online properties.

Taking up the new position is Ken Fuchs, who is vice president of digital distribution and emerging platforms at Time Inc. at this time.

Mickie Rosen, Senior Vice President of Yahoo Media Network in the internal memo, that Yahoo is also creating a new editor-in-chief position which will target "programming initiatives" including "content mix" and "social marketing" across Yahoo's various online businesses.

Fuchs will officially join Yahoo on April 5. He has worked in the past as vice president of strategy at News Corp's (NASDAQ:NWSA) Fox Interactive Media's revenue group.

Uncertainty as to the sale of the 35 percent stake they hold in Yahoo Japan appears to have pressured the stock down

Yahoo closed Tuesday at $16.33, down $0.98, or 5.66 percent.

Amazon (AMZN) Targets Netflix (NFLX), Launches Streaming Video Service

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) rolled out a streaming TV and movie service for its prime customers, taking a direct shot at fast growing rival Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX).

Amazon announced on Tuesday that its prime customers, who pay $79 a year for free two-day shipping, can choose among 5,000 TV shows and movies such as "Syriana," "Doctor Who: Season 4," and "Analyze This" to stream through computers and devices such as Roku. The streaming video service is available to prime members at no additional cost.

Netflix shares fell 4 percent in opening trade on Tuesday while shares of Amazon were down 1.5 percent.

A representative from Netflix was not immediately available for comment.

The move ramps up the battle among Netflix, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which are all vying to control the living room by letting consumers watch TV shows and movies directly from the Internet to TV sets and other devices like tablet computers.

At the same time, these companies are trying to woo media conglomerates such as Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX), Walt Disney (DIS.N), News Corp (NYSE:NWS), Viacom (NYSE:VIA-b) and CBS (NYSE:CBS) for their TV shows and movies.

Rest of Story...

Time Warner (TWX) Fires Time Inc. CEO After 6 Months with Company

Only six months after being hired as Chairman and CEO of Time Inc., Jack Griffin has been fired by parent Time Warner (NYSE:TWX).

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes wrote this in a memo to employees, "Although Jack is an extremely accomplished executive, I concluded that his leadership style and approach did not mesh with Time Inc. and Time Warner."

Time Inc. is the unit of Time Warner which oversees top American magazines like Sports Illustrated, Time, and People.

Bewkes said until he hires a successor to Griffin the unit will be guided by Howard Averill, Time Inc.'s CFO, Maurice Edelson, Time Inc.'s general counsel and editor-in-chief John Huey.

Time Warner Inc closed Thursday at $37.68, gaining $0.38, or 1.02 percent.

Netflix (Nasdaq:NFLX) Costs About to Soar?

On the earnings call of Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) on Wednesday, CEO Jeff Bewkes hinted the company isn't getting paid what it deserves from Netflix (Nasdaq:NFLX), suggesting there's a strong possibility they're going to extract a higher price soon.

Bewkes noted, "It’s getting kind of clear that the acceleration and consumer usage of these kinds of services, including Netflix, makes it a good time for us to reevaluate the terms. In our view, the current pricing and window are not really commensurate with the value that those kinds of availabilities of our films are extracting. So we can’t really be more specific at this time. We just think that value that film companies or our film companies should get for that period of exhibition is considerably higher than what is there now."

Commenting on what Bewkes had to say, Jefferies analyst Youssef Squali said, “While NFLX management has so far successfully calibrated content deals to margins and rapidly accelerating subscriber growth, a significant increase in content costs could limit the number of content deals struck and in turn slow subscriber growth and impact churn rates.”

If Bewkes is saying this, you can be sure the rest of the major media companies are thinking the same thing.

Netflix is beginning to face pressures it hasn't had to deal with in the past, not only with the deals being struck, but now the emerging commodity-like direction the industry is taking, where companies like Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) could stream video at lower prices than Netflix could.

The unabated run to the top is now over for Netflix, and they'll have to start competing at a level they haven't had to in the past.

When streaming becomes the primary way movies and TV shows are consumed, it'll be much harder for Netflix to differentiate, and price will become the determining factor in using a provider. That doesn't bode well for Netflix, although it'll take time to play out.

Netflix was trading at $212.26, up $1.00, or 0.47 percent, as of 12:52 PM EST.

Comcast (Nasdaq:CMCSA), Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) Sign "TV Everywhere" Streaming Deal

Comcast (Nasdaq:CMCSA) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) have entered a partnership which will allow Comcast to stream video content from Time Warner onto the device of their choosing.

Included in the deal are all content Time Warner produces, which play on channels like Adults Swim, CNN, HLN, TBS and TNT, among others.

Users will be able to access the content very soon via Comcast on Demand, websites owned by Turner, and XfinityTV.com. Later in 2011, video from Time Warner will be made available on Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad and iPhone, as well as devices using Android.

Time Warner closed Tuesday at $32.31, gaining $0.86, or 2.73 percent. Comcast closed at $23.40, up $0.65, or 2.86 percent.

Viacom (NYSE:VIA-B) Disney (NYSE:DIS) Scripps Networks (NYSE:SNI): News Corp (Nasdaq:NWSA), CBS (NYSE:CBS) Most Potential in Entertainment Says Barcla

Barclays gave a review of entertainment stocks in the U.S., and those considered to have the best potential in 2011 are Viacom (NYSE:VIA-B) Disney (NYSE:DIS) Scripps Networks (NYSE:SNI): News Corp (Nasdaq:NWSA) and CBS (NYSE:CBS).

They said "We remain constructive on the Entertainment group, as (1) we believe in the strength of the U.S. advertising recovery; (2) we believe 2011E Street estimates are achievable; and (3) we continue to believe valuation is undemanding relative to Consumer stocks."

Comments:

Viacom (VIA-B): Trades at most attractive EV/EBITDA, P/E, and P/FCF valuations and at the largest discount relative to historical valuation.

Disney (DIS): Operates best-in-class asset portfolio. A recovery at the Parks & Resorts segment, which is mid-cycle in nature, offers upside potential.

Scripps Networks (SNI): Strongest organic growth, continued outperformance from the Travel Channel, opportunities for international expansion, and the potential purchase of the outstanding portion of the Food Network.

News Corp (NWSA): Attractive valuation relative to US Entertainment and historical multiples. An acquisition of BSkyB, assuming it goes through, would improve News Corp's asset mix and increase the efficiency of its free cash flow generation.

CBS (CBS): Offers the most exposure to a cyclical rebound. Strong ratings at the network and retransmission consent fees keep us constructive on the TV network business.

Time Warner (NYSE:TWX): Least exposure to the advertising recovery; while valuation is reasonable, structural growth upside less likely given maturity of assets.

Discovery (Nasdaq:DISCA): Continues to trade at the highest valuation multiple in the group. While we expect Discovery to generate above-average growth in 2011, growth is decelerating and programming costs rising.

Viacom was trading at $41.09, down $0.13, or 0.32 percent, as of 2:40 PM EST. Disney was at $39.21, up $0.04, or 0.10 percent. Scripps was trading at $47.48, down $0.35, or 0.73 percent. News Corp. was at $14.18, down $0.18, or 1.25 percent. CBS was at $19.81, up 0.02, or 0.13 percent. Time Warner was trading at $33.66, down $0.03, or 0.15 percent. Discovery Communications was at $38.84, down $0.82, or 2.07 percent.

Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) Call-Option Trades Soar as Stock

Since November 30 shares of Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) moving up quickly, generating interest from traders who have been buying call-options in large quantities, the most since May for the entertainment giant.

As of a little after noon today, there were just under 47,000 calls to acquire the stock. Calls offer a trader the right to buy 100 shares of a security for a chosen figure, the strike price, by a specific date.

February $34 calls, the most-active contracts, accounted for close to 80 percent of options traded on the stock so far today.

Since November 30, the share price of Time Warner has risen 13 percent.

Time Warner was trading at $33.34, gaining $0.17, or 0.51 percent, as of 2:08 PM EST.

Netflix (Nasdaq:NFLX) Subsriber Base May Rise 33 Percent in 2011

While the leaving of Netflix (Nasdaq:NFLX) CFO Barry McCarthy challenging time for the company, and companies like Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN), Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) taking major runs at them, some analysts believe the subscriber rate in 2011 will grow by up to 33 percent based on migration from DVDs to streaming video.

Canaccord said, "The mail-order and online movie-rental service said longtime CFO Barry McCarthy is leaving, ostensibly to pursue 'broader executive opportunities.' McCarthy had served as CFO of Netflix since 1999 and led the company's initial public offering in 2002. He had previously announced his intention to resign in 2004, but later reversed his decision. Taking over for McCarthy is David Wells, who has served at the company for nearly seven years and combines both senior analytical and operating experience. He most recently served as vice president of financial planning and analysis, reporting to McCarthy. Although Wells is no doubt a capable replacement, the change could shake the foundation of Netflix heading into 2011. In a note to clients this morning, Jefferies analyst Youssef Squali lowered his rating on the stock, writing that McCarthy 'leaves behind big shoes to fill, particularly at the current juncture.” He added, “Virtually everybody is gunning for it, from tech platforms like Google, Amazon and Apple, to content owners like Time Warner. Having said that, Reed Hastings, CEO, remains firmly in charge as the man behind the vision.' Squali sees the company’s subscriber base rising 33% next year, to 25.5 million, with DVD use dropping by 18%, making the company more focused on streaming."

Netflix closed Thursday at $191.05, up $2.82, or 1.50 percent.